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Tag Archives: Taiwan

Since few month, I keep in my favorite for this blog a jeweller working with rice. Hsiang-Ling Lu or Zoe Lulu is from Taiwan, graduated from Birmingham (yes another one!) in 2010. Except from her master work in 2010, I can’t find any recent information about her and can’t send an email either. So I don’t know where she has been graduated before. Sometimes, I feel a bit like a spy, trying to find information about people, collecting every single details on internet… Anyway, her work is definitely something I want to talk about in my blog!

As you already know, rice is something very important in Asian culture. China is the biggest producer and seller of rice around the world. On the FAO website, People’s Republic of China is the first producer of rice with 197.2 million metric tons in 2010, followed by India (the next 8 countries are all Asian). China is also the biggest consumer of rice with 156 million metric tons (2009)! Rice is really cheap , and for many people in the world it’s the only thing they can afford to eat. For them, it’s a really precious ingredient, the one that can keeping them alive and feed their family! I still remember in primary school when teachers asked us to buy rice boxes in order to collect them and send them to poor countries.

In Hsiang-Ling Lu’s work, I like to see how, precious metal is replaced by rice. The main material is food! In my latest post I was talking about values, and valuable work. About the fact that Chinese appreciate skills, but don’t really understand critical thinking. Well this is a great example of someone from People’s Republic of China who’s been working on a conceptual way. Asking herself about what is valuable today; what make things valuable for people; and the relation we have in our civilisation nowadays with money and food! For poor people, when they received rice, it’s probably for them more valuable than any kind of gold or object! Her work make us (“rich” people) asking ourself about our consumption and waste of food… and also about our materialist society. It’s not only about making pretty jewellery with unusual material!

“Rice is cheap, small, but vital. The definition of ‘ordinary’ and ‘luxury’ at different levels of social status is contradictory and interesting. I use this ‘ordinary’ material to describe opulence, and also explore the meaning of value and preciousness in different contexts.”

To make the rice stronger she add resin. Then it’s harder and she pierce it, saw it, etc. I find interesting how with her method, she keep the white and translucent aspect of the rice. As she said in her blog, she also keep the smooth texture of it! I like the patterns created by the grains! The titles of the pieces are also interesting! With “Madame de Pompadour”, “Rococo frame”, I can see she has been interested by the Rococo period in France. Which is a really interesting part of our French history. Fashion, architecture, furnitures, etc, were full of precious materials! The movie “Marie Antoinette” by Sofia Coppola is a really good one to show you how people of the royal court were consuming. Meanwhile people outside Versailles were fighting to have food and survive! And I think it’s sad to say, it’s still the same today! Rich countries are consuming everything, when poor people are still craving for the most important thing: food. In her blog she explains, at first why she made things with rice:

“I just left my home country to a brand new place and my tool box was on its way to Birmingham. Than my mother send me a pack of rice. It was so precious that I would not even eat them.Rice was my treasure at the moment.“

At the beginning, when I’ve picked up the topic of “How is to be a contemporary jeweller in/from China” for my final year research I thought that I’ll have an overdose of contemporary jewellery. I thought that galleries, schools, and artists were probably a lot hidden in the middle empire! I thought that a huge country like China would obviously got a lot of people working into the field of “contemporary jewellery”. Well, actually not really!

China is the most populated country in the world, but quite far behind western countries (however much smaller) when is time to talk about contemporary art in a wide way. When I say contemporary art, I’m talking about reflective thinking, philosophic and artistic approach. There is a difference between mastering skills and making things by questioning the world arround us and ourself in order to create something with a meaning, a message behind.

During a conversation with my friend Patricia, from Hong Kong, she told me that: “Chinese people are reserved. It’s difficult for them to think in a conceptual way and to have a critical thinking. Contemporary art is not something really appreciate, you have to follow many rules and to stay in a right way. (eg: Ai Weiwei) . Nowadays, philosophy thinking is not something usual in art, Chinese likes pretty things with values, financial and social values! Chinese are hard workers, they appreciate skills based work but most of them don’t understand what an artistic and philosophic approach is. Now things are changing a bit, people want to open their mind”.

So, I’m not saying there is nothing, but in proportion of the population and the size of the country, contemporary art is something not widespread. During my research, I found out that new jewellers from China spent few years abroad to learn not at the first place skills, but learn to think! Creative and reflective thinking. Contemporary jewellery department in Chinese art schools are new ; and because being chinese involved that you’ve got a really strong history and cultural identity (even if teachers nowadays are trying to push new students to think by their own), it’s still difficult to going away from all the traditions. Also because some schools abroad China are well knowing internationally, Chinese jeweller students want to move away from the past to face new cultures and new ideas! Which I think, is good, even if students are not many staying in Chinese art schools (probably one of the reason why contemporary jewellery is starting slowly). Most of the time, once the students are abroad, they stay in the new country. That is because during your studies you start making contacts, connections, links with the people arround you. Your new country is now your working and social network! (And this is for all the foreign students, not only Chinese). So, it’s mush easier to start your own business in the country where you’ve been developing “a name”, knows as a contemporary jeweller. I think the number of jewellers working in China will not only pair with the number of schools and their reputation but also the international reputation of foreign schools (such as Birmingham). Also because Chinese have been stuck with the same art traditions since centuries and centuries, new artists want to go ahead in order to create new things. I think mixing culture, traveling, is always a good way to bring new ideas into your mind.

About galleries; well, the few I found (hardly found with a lot of help I should say) are not properly in China! The first in China (not Hong Kong or Taiwan) has open 4 month ago and runs by a Swedish woman! To be honest, I was surprised, a bit disappointed and glad by that. I thought galleries will be many and that will be helpful for me to find new artists on their website. And I also thought it will be an interesting way for myself to make contact and connection for my future. This is for the disappointing point. At the opposite, I was glad to see a western person running a gallery specialised in contemporary jewellery in China. Which means there is a big potential for European people to share and build something over there! This fact show us actually, how contemporary jewellery is new! Except Ubi Gallery in Beijing and Twocities in Shanghai, the two others, Hammer gallery, and Ame gallery (I’ll post an article later about Ame Gallery) are in Hong Kong!

I’ve also been confronted with the difference between China, Republic of China and People’s Republic of China. I’ve been asking arround me a simple basic explanation, and , it seems to be hard to obtain. Chinese from China told me that Taiwan is Chinese. Taiwanese told me they are not Chinese, and Hong Konger told me that it’s an intricate topic, not easy to understand especially for a foreigner who have no clue about asian politics like me! So, to be sure I’m not offending anybody, I’m talking about People’s Republic of China, not only China. Which means I’m including Hong Kong and Taiwan. Both of the two islands are nowadays connected strongly with China (without talking about politics), but many differences remain between them.

One difference is the internet. Nowadays in China you still can’t access to social networks. And nowadays, facebook and twitter are really useful to share instantly everything. Many jewellers and galleries create a facebook and a twitter account to stay connected with their “fans”, followers, customers, and people from the same field as well. The lack of such sharing platforms are also responsible of the slowness of the contemporary jewellery development. In a wide country like China, social networks would be a good way to share faster and to promote new designers! It’s a reason why Hong Kong and Taiwan are different from China. Internet in the two islands is not censored. Western people can access to website over there and Hong Konger and Taiwanese can also see through internet what happening on the other side of the globe. I think, today, being on the web is one of the key to stay in people’s mind and also to stay aware of everything. Especially in the art/fashion field.

Another difference: Honk Kong used to be English during a long time. And Taiwan used to be Japanese. The fact that they were owned by different countries give to the citizen a different way to think. Mainly for Hong Kong. Often described as the “East meets West”, Hong Kong has been influenced a lot by the british culture, and Hong Konger are now very tempted by Western luxury goods. Many luxury brands such Cartier, Vuitton, Dior, etc, found a way to attract new customers in Asia! Because Hong Kong used to belong to the United Kingdom and got that “double culture”, it’s easier now to make relations and contacts over there, than anywhere else in China!

Over the weekend, I’ve been really suprised by the nice comments/tweets and facebook sharing about my blog! During summer I thought making a blog about jewellery might be a waste of time… So many interesting blogs about artists/jewellers on the internet, I thought people will be bored and not paying attention to it, especially because I’m not a good blog writer. Words are not coming easily, even if when I’m using French it takes a long time to organise my ideas, and it’s worse when I’m writting in English. Anyway, I’m not the best at blogging for the moment: true, but if I keep going, I do not see why I could not improve it!

Seeing good comments about my blog encourage me to keep writing and sharing! And it’s much better when you share about your passion! I was really pleased to meet through Facebook Heng Lee. A young talented Taiwanese jeweller. After a bachelor in art and design at the National Hsinchu University, he went to the Tainan National University of the Art. In 2011 he has been graduated by a Master of applied art, Metalsmithing and Jewellery.
After our “internet meeting” I was looking at his Facebook page and at his work more carefully. And I was amazed! The technical skills, especially with the enamel work called “plique à jour” , “cloisonné”, and “champlevé” they are really difficult techniques which need a long time training! I think every kind of skills which involve fire process is quite hard to learn and to master!

Now, the enamel is replaced by embroidery! Heng’s work is a mixture between computer assisted digital patterns and traditional crafts skills. In the “Floral Embroidery Series” he takes inspiration from the Chinese embroidery, which is a very old fine traditional craft. When you see his work you obviously thinking of pixels. It’s actually what he does: playing with photoshop in order to create a pixel mosaic. Then the shapes are cutting with a laser cutter. After using softwares, computer engineering and new technologies, Heng goes back to the traditional skills by using hand-embroidery to give colour and details to his pieces. I really love the contrast between hand crafts skills and digital patterns!

With the same creation process, he made the series “Download nature”. Here, Heng plays with butterflies images, first downloaded from internet. He compares the pixels grid to the butterfly wing grid, and uses it as embroidery support for glass beads. The butterfly symbolised the beauty of Taiwan.

Once again, I’m really surprised how a jeweller uses his culture and mixes it with new technologies in order to create something unusual!

To discover more about Heng Lee’s work you can have a look at his facebook page: Heng Lee Jewellery

I have always seen traditional Chinese art as something really peaceful and relaxing. Maybe there is something related to the bouddhist religion, meditation? And I have always thought traditional Chinese art would be great to learn in our western busy and individualist culture as a way to be in harmony with ourself first but also with nature, people, different religions and cultures…Something in order to have a better understood of the world around us. Well I say Chinese, but I could say Asian art. I’m not a religious person at all. I have no clue about what is yoga or relaxation, but I still thinking there is something quite therapeutic by making,doing art especially with old traditional Asian art.

When I first saw two years ago the work of Li-Chu Wu, it’s exactly what I’ve felt: relaxed, appeased. Contemplating the delicate paper layers, which reminds me landscapes and nature. The kind of maps with all the different lines to show the reliefs of the earth. Her work seems to be the final piece of a long repeating process: drawing all the different layers shape, cutting them and putting them together.

I was really surprised when I’ve read her artist’s statment on her website last week and discover that she’s taking inspiration in landscapes and nature! Thereby, making a relation between the material and its origines. Li-Chu Wu uses the computering and laser cutter technologies to make all the paper layers. Again, the paper cutting art is on of the old famous traditional Chinese art! She’s another artist mixing new and old, contemporary and traditions! Her work is something between jewellery and sculpture : wearable objects. The opening shapes reveals other coloured stratums, it gives me that impression the object/sculpture is flourishing, blossoming: living! The intricate layers made with colourful quality paper give to the structured jewel a very attractive and beautiful appearance!

Li-chu Wu is from Tapei in Taiwan where she’ve been diplomed in metalsmithing and jewellery design at the Fu Jen Catholic University. She’s now based in Birmingham where she’s been graduated in 2010 with a MA in jewellery and related products (yes another artist from BIAD!). If you google her name, you’ll see her work is now worldwilde exhibited!

Even if the Japanese are famous for their origami, Chinese are also well known for their paperfolding. Walter Cheng is one of those artists who works with the notion of delicacy. The materials used in his creations are symbols of lightness: the bamboo, the paper, the silk cocoon. They are also a symbol of the Chinese culture and history. Paper has been invented in China 105 AD (apparently more earlier since few archaeological discoveries). China is also the country where has been invented the silk fabric by using silk worms. About bamboo, it’s used in many different fields such as medicine, food, creation of tableware, paper making as well, etc.

After his studies in Tawain at the National Tawain University of Arts, Walter moved to Escola Massana (Barcelona, Spain). He’s now based in Barcelona and he’s giving paperfolding class at the Arsenal Escola Municipal d’Art. His work shows a real sensibility and sagacity, probably influenced and learnt through his culture, he’s not only using the material as a random one, Walter manifies the paper, the bamboo, the silk cocoon. He gives them another function, another story between ancestral culture and modernity, between traditional and contemporary skills.